Guppy advice

[Nix87]

Hello I’m having problems with my guppys

I had 5 males living together happily then one of them died. Since he died one of them(pink) started to bully one of the others (yellow) I went to my local fish shop and was told it was because I didn’t have a big enough group so bought 4 more males.Yesterday morning when I woke up yellow was really bloated and looked like a pinecone. From looking online I gather he has dropsy. I have removed him from the tank and he’s not really looking any better but he’s eating and swimming around fine in the other tank. Now pink has started to bully another of the old group (orange). I don’t want him to get stressed and Ill so I have put pink in a breeder box on his own.

What should I do? All the other fish are getting on fine. Should I find somewhere else for pink? What should I do about yellow with dropsy? I don’t really want to get females as I haven’t got the space for babies

 

[SaraB]

How big is your tank? Do you have hiding spots for them (ie: plants, decorations)? What is your water change schedule? Do you have a water test it? If no then you can you take it to your local pet store (petsmart or pet valu) and they should be able to test it for you.

 

[Nix87]

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It’s 64 litres has lots of plants and hidey holes. As recommended by my local pet store I change 30% every week with added filter boosy. The water was tested when I pick up the 4 newbies and was fine

 

[SaraB]

Ok. Dropsy could be caused by anything from bad water quality, lower temperatures, stress or poor nutrition. What temperature is your tank at? What are you feeding them?
For the one with dropsy, keep it quarantined. You can treat with aquarium salt. 1 teaspoon for every gallon of water. Feed high quality foods. You could try antibiotics, just make sure to take out any carbon from the filter when medicating or it won't help.
As for the rest. Keep an eye out to make sure no one else is starting to show signs of dropsy. If the pink one is being a bully and stressing out the others then maybe rehome him. You could also try separating him for a bit as a "timeout", move the decorations around and seeing if he calms down when you add him back. He could just be territorial over a certain decoration or area so moving things around forces them to find a new territory.